Farm Security Administration (1936–1942) ,
Arthur Rothstein,
Russell Lee, and
Roy Stryker, between 1937 and 1944 's photography program. It depicts a worker drinking from a battered pan during the
Texas Oil Boom in
Kilgore, Texas — a snapshot of boomtown grit and improvisation. In the fall of 1936, during the
Great Depression, Lee was hired for the federally sponsored
Farm Security Administration (FSA) photographic documentation project of the
Franklin D. Roosevelt administration. He joined a team assembled under
Roy Stryker, along with
Dorothea Lange,
Arthur Rothstein, and
Walker Evans. Stryker provided direction and bureaucratic protection to the group, leaving the photographers free to compile what in 1973 was described as "the greatest documentary collection which has ever been assembled." His series on
Pie Town, New Mexico (1940) is among his most recognized bodies of work, utilizing
Kodachrome color film to document a homesteading community.
Japanese American Internment (1942) Over the spring and summer of 1942, Lee was one of several government photographers to document the
forced relocation of Japanese Americans from the West Coast. Following
Executive Order 9066, approximately 120,000 individuals of Japanese ancestry were incarcerated. Of this population, roughly 80,000 were
Nisei (American-born citizens) and
Sansei (children of Nisei), while the remaining 40,000 were
Issei (Japanese immigrants ineligible for citizenship). He produced more than 600 images of families waiting to be removed and their later lives in various detention facilities. His work focused primarily on the
Santa Anita Assembly Center in California and the
Granada War Relocation Center (Amache) in Colorado.
Air Transport Command (1943–1945) After the FSA was defunded in 1943, Lee served in the
Air Transport Command (ATC). During this period, he took photographs of all the airfield approaches used by the ATC to supply the Armed Forces in
World War II. This work took him globally, documenting logistics and aviation infrastructure.
Coal Mines Administration (1946–1947) In 1946 and 1947, he worked for the
United States Department of the Interior (DOI), helping the agency compile a medical survey in communities involved in mining
bituminous coal. The survey was comprehensive; Lee visited 185 mines across multiple states.He created over 4,000 photographs of miners and their working conditions in coal mines. This series is noted for its brutal honesty regarding the health and safety violations found in the camps. In 1946, Lee also completed a focused series of photos on a
Pentecostal Church of God in a Kentucky coal camp, documenting
snake handling religious practices.. While completing the DOI work, Lee continued to accept commissions from Stryker, producing public relations photographs for
Standard Oil of New Jersey. In 1947 Lee moved to
Austin, Texas, and continued photography. In 1965 he became the first instructor of photography at the
University of Texas there. ==Legacy==